Blog #3: Laptops, Laptops Everywhere

Computer Hardware - What are the components of a computer?

     As a student and a child born in a generation of computers and technology, we are used to seeing AND using computers and laptops and tablets, etc., everyday of our lives. But do we really understand how the computer does what it does? How it does a corresponding action to your command? Of course oftentimes we would be curious, but oftentimes it ends in curiosity, nothing more.

     When I was in elementary, I faintly remember that in our computer class, we were shown the insides of the so-called "CPU", which I learned should be actually called the case, or chassis. Since I barely remember that, I was glad I took an IT class today when my mind could properly understand and retain the information :P

     It was cool to see an actual opened chassis and see all the parts and what every part does. I now understood RAM, the intel levels (core i3, i4, i5, etc.), and other parts usually seen on specifications when buying PCs, and what kind is perfect for a person's characteristic.

Actual motherboard shown in class, featuring Ma'am Marya's hand :P

     If placed on a table, a motherboard would look like a city, with buildings and skyscrapers, and buses. At a really small size, it is so complex that we almost forget that humans built this kind of thing. Even the actual board can interconnect the parts attached to it. Amazing right?

The Art of Buying a Laptop :P

Copyright, memegenerator.net

     After our lesson about the computer hardware, we were presented a list of 18 laptops with their corresponding specifications. At first I was like, "What are we going to do with these? Are we gonna study how to buy a laptop correctly?".

     But since earlier we were taught that we should choose what we think would suit our usage most, I chose a fast laptop with good graphics with a RAM or memory of 4GB DDR3 (compared to others with 2GB DDR3 or DDR2) and a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 3MB L3 Cache (am I talking alien? LOL anyway..). Some of those laptops have an AMD processor, which according to them was good for games, while Intel is good for multitasking. I'm more of a multitasking person, and I usually have more that 5 tabs in my browser, while listening to music and playing solitaire :3 Also, I chose the laptop with the highest hard drive size which was 750 GB, compared to others with only 500. It is because I took into consideration the fact that I don't have an external hard drive to use as a back up or storage in case my laptop runs out of memory. In fact, my 640 GB laptop is almost full in less than 3 years. I'm a memory keeper type of person so I don't usually delete things.

     Of course when buying a laptop I also look for a webcam, a CD/DVD drive, USB ports, HDMI ports, bluetooth, mic, and some other usual things. And of course, as a regular person I must consider the price. When it comes to buying things with my money, I make sure that I get what I paid for. The laptop with the specs I mentioned above costs 24,999 pesos, and it basically has everything I look for in a laptop (all-in-one), even better than the laptop I have now with the same price.

     I think learning about this was a great advantage, because I can easily decide what to buy for myself, unlike before that I have to ask a salesman who doesn't even know my personality. In this way, I can also help my family in choosing the laptop that's best for them, without bothering salesmen too much.

[To Ma'am Marya: I'm really sorry that I posted this just now. I really forgot to do it over the weekend. I hope you still get to read this ;) ]